Nashville Predators Seth Jones, left, and David Legwand attend the groundbreaking on the ice rink at The Global Mall at the Crossings in October. / Sanford Myers / File / The Tennessean

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The Global Mall at the Crossings is in Antioch. / Sanford Myers / File / The Tennessean

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The Nashville Predators and the Hickory Hollow area are an interesting marriage at best. A team whose sporting roots are based in Canada meets a neighborhood that got its start in retail.

But both the Predators and the Hickory Hollow area hope an 80,000-square-foot mixed-use sporting facility will bring the neighborhood back to some level of prominence and diversify it among the sporting landscape in the city. The community ice rink and hockey center will be part of a mixed-use, $32 million complex at the former Hickory Hollow Mall that will include a library, a community center and a 4-acre park.

“I think the rink will serve as an economic engine for that area,” Predators CEO Jeff Cogen said. “It had a heyday and went into disrepair. … If it was good once, we can make it good again.”

Hickory Hollow Mall, in the southeastern area of town, once was home to a Macy’s, Sears and JCPenney, among other stores. But the economic downturn near the end of the past decade, coupled with newer shopping options in other parts of the region, turned the mall area into a ghost town.

Stores closed and Nashville State Community College moved into the former Dillard’s location in the mall.

But developers, the Predators and Metro saw prime space to achieve their goals.

The mall reopened as Global Mall at the Crossings in May. In June came the announcement that the Predators would build new rinks in conjunction with Metro.

For the Predators it was in their new lease, agreed to in June 2012, that they had to help build new sheets of ice in Davidson County. The goal was to add to the four sheets in the area — the lowest in all NHL markets — which the organization hoped would boost the sport’s profile in the area, as well as being used for other sports.

Excitement is high.

“We’ve had many community leaders and activists in the area come together to form a group of individuals who want to see some things that are positive,” said community activist Markeith Baden. “And I think the sports multiplex is going to be a great benefit, especially for our youth, who don’t have necessarily all the activities or facilities that other communities might have.”